EC - The Libertine

Anyone who has seen a Johnny Depp movie before is aware of how brilliant he can portray characters, especially those with sinister or demented personality traits. That being said, his performance in the Libertine still does a stunning job showing us how blunt, intimidating and (this adjective is a cop-out) debaucherous the Earl of Rochester quite possibly could have been.

First off, it is quite obvious that Wilmot was a genius. Secondly, it is obvious that he is fully aware of his intellectual standing relative to nearly everyone he encounters. Whether it’s a comment he makes to his wife about her lack of an exciting personality (and how he prefers a monkey for company instead), a lesson he teaches to a nobleman in the street about life with regard to a possibly dishonest servant, or his condescending attitude toward King Charles II, the ruler of England, Depp hammers home the point that his character knows he is smarter than everyone else, most of whom consistently bore him. Even the other contemporary writers who seem to be his closest friends are kept at an arm’s length.

His greatest loves, according to legend were drinking, seduction of both men and women, and the literary arts. We can prove this by reading poems like ‘the Disabled Debauchee’, which gives us the stanza: Should any youth (worth being drunk) prove nice/And from his fair inviter meanly shrink/’Twill please the ghost of my departed vice/If, at my counsel, he repent and drink. Depp does an amazing job showing his love for seducing (only women though) the arts, and drinking. Additionally, the screenwriter added a very telling dialogue in which Wilmot asks his servant for ink, who instead brings him a pint of ale, thinking that he heard “drink,” leading us to believe that this was an oft-repeated request.

While the movie is very crude at times, Depp has no sex scenes, although his crude manner permeates the movie nonetheless, making actual sex needless to show this side of Wilmot. The movie spends a good amount of time around his life as a literary artist, detailing poems he has written in the past, a play he writes for the king, and even his ability to turn Elizabeth Barry, a strongly opinionated, poorly trained beauty into an amazing actress. The movie also shows in great detail (as I have previously mentioned in a blog) how he despised King Charles II, a claim made valid by his stanza in ‘Upon Nothing’ where he states: Whilst weighty Something modestly abstains/From princes coffers and from statesman’s brains/And nothing there like Something reigns?

The fact the Depp can bring this character to life seems to merely be a tribute to his acting, but the fact that his performance was so brilliant and so breathtaking leads me to believe that a little of the credit should be given to Wilmot, the vivacious debauchee himself and the colorful life he provided for Depp to imitate.